Insalata di mare (Italian Mixed Seafood Salad)

While casting around for another recipe to share this holiday season, I realized that somehow in all these years of blogging I’d managed to overlook a pillar of Italian seafood cookery—a veritable cavallo da battaglia or “battle horse” as the Italians would say: the venerable insalata di mare or Italian mixed seafood salad.

There’s actually no better time than the present to correct this egregious omission. Seafood salad may conjure up visions of summers at the beach, but perhaps surprisingly it also has a special place on Italian holiday tables, as an antipasto for a traditional fish based Christmas Eve dinner. This refreshing starter provides a pleasant contrast to all the fried or roasted dishes to follow.

The core ingredients for making insalata di mare include shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams. The shrimp and calamari are both boiled in an aromatic broth, separately so each is done just right, while the clams and mussels are steamed (either together or separately) in a flavor base of garlic, olive oil and wine. Everything is then tossed together with a simple olive oil and lemon dressing.

While there are a few steps involved, an insalata di mare isn’t difficult to make and, unlike say a fritto misto di mare, can and indeed should be made ahead to develop its flavors, which makes it a practical as well as delicious addition to your holiday table.

Ingredients

Serves 2-4 as an appetizer, depending on appetites and what else you’re serving

To cook the shrimp and calamari:

• 250g (1/2 lb) medium shrimp, tails removed, peeled and deveined if needed
• 250g (1/2 lb) small to medium sized calamari,, cleaned
• 1 small onion, peeled and cut in half
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 sprigs of parsley
• salt

For cooking the mussels and clams:

• 500g (1 lb) mussels
• 1 dozen clams, preferably a small variety like littlenecks
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed and peeled
• A stems of a few sprigs of fresh parsley
• Peels of one lemon
• White wine

To prepare the dressing:

• The juice of 1/2 lemon
• 150ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
• salt
• The leaves of a few sprigs of fresh parsley, finely minced
• 1 small clove of garlic, very finely minced (optional)
• A small pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Directions

Prep and cook the shrimp and calamari

Cut the body of the calamari into rings and, if you they are large, cut the tentacles into bite sized pieces. Set aside until needed.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Salt very generously and add the onion, celery, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Let simmer for a good 15-20 minutes so the aromatics infuse. Remove the aromatics.

Add the shrimp and cook very briefly, only until they turn pink, usually just a minute or two. Remove immediately with a skimmer and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry.

Now add the calamari to the same pot and simmer until tender, usually about 5-10 minutes depending on their size. Once cooked, remove the calamari with a skimmer, run under cold water, drain and pat dry.

Prep and cook the clams and mussels

Soak both the clams and mussels in well salted water for at least an hour. Drain when ready to cook.

In a saucepan large enough to hold all the clams and mussels comfortably, sauté the garlic and parsley stems gently in a drizzle of olive oil, just until you can smell the garlic (which should not brown at all).

Add the clams first (as they will take longer to open) and then the mussels on top, along with a splash of white wine.

Cover and let the clams and mussels steam let them steam just until they open. Shake the saucepan gently from time to time to help things along and uncover to check on them every couple of minutes. As the bivalves open, remove them to a bowl to cool off.

When the clams and mussels have cooled enough to handle, gingerly remove the meat from their shells, using paring knife if need be to cut the ligaments that attach the meat to its shell. Rinse off any grit that may cling to the meat and, for the mussels, trim off any threads that might still be clinging to them.

Place the clams and mussel meat in a small bowl and, if you’re not planning on using them right away, moisten them with a spoonful or two of their cooking juices.

When you’re ready to use the clams and mussels, drain them and gently pat them dry with a paper towel.

Preparing the dressing

Whisk the lemon juice and olive oil together until emulsified. If you like, add a spoonful or two of the clam and mussel cooking juices and whisk again. Season with a pinch of salt, the minced parsley and, if using, the minced garlic and/or red pepper flakes. Whisk again to mix well.

Putting it all together

Place all the cooked seafood in a mixing bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss until all the seafood is nicely coated. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Let marinate for at least an hour before serving.

To serve, arrange the marinated seafood on a platter or in a serving bowl, then drizzle the seafood with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and, if you like, sprinkle with minced parsley for color.

Notes

While it involves a few steps, there’s not much to trip you up when making an insalata di mare. The main points I’d make is to avoid overcooking the shrimp—there’s nothing quite so disappointing as mealy and tasteless overcooked shrimp—and to take care when shelling the bivalves. The reasons are a bit mysterious, but some mussels and clams will fall out of their shells during steaming, others will slip out of their shells easily once steamed, and yet others will cling tenaciously to one or both of their ligaments and need trimming off with a knife. With these stubborn ones, you need to be especially careful since the meat, in particular the mussels, is quite delicate and can tear. Not the end of the world, but it looks a mess.

This is a flexible recipe. You should take the measurements for the four main ingredients here basically as suggestions. I think these measurements provide a nice balance among the various elements but it’s really very much a matter of personal taste. The important thing is that none of the individual elements should predominate.

People can and do make this dish with frozen seafood mixes or with frozen shrimp or squid bought separately. Long time readers will know I’m generally not opposed to using frozen foods, but this is one case where, if possible, I’d definitely go for fresh—that is say unfrozen—seafood of the best quality you can find. With only a light dressing as a complement, the taste and texture of the seafood in an insalata di mare is paramount. And if your pocketbook allows, buy from a proper fish monger rather than a supermarket. After all, if you’re cooking for a special occasion like Christmas Eve, why not spend a little more?

Other seafood

Besides the four ingredients mentioned in the master recipe, other seafood can go into an insalata di mare. Octopus and cuttlefish are the most common ones among Italian recipes. They can both simmer in the same aromatic broth as the shrimp and calamari. They will take considerably longer to cook than then shrimp and squid. Depending on size/age, octopus can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, while cuttlefish usually take about 20-30 minutes. If you have access to other kinds of crustaceans like langoustines, they can also go into the mix.

Unlike a fritto misto, on the other hand, finny fish don’t go into a typical insalata di mare. The reasons should be obvious, their flesh is typically too delicate for this kind of treatment and would tend to break apart and create a mess. Stick to crustaceans, mollusks and cephalopods.

Cooking the shrimp and calamari

The aromatics that go into the broth the shrimp and calamari cook in can vary. Some recipes call for carrot, for example, but I’ve never cared for their sweetness when cooking seafood dishes. But that’s me. Others omit the garlic, or include garlic but not onion. Some include parsley but not the bay leaf. And so on.

English language recipes for seafood salads will often call for flash cooking calamari for under a minute, as you would do with shrimp. You can certainly do that if you like, but it’s interesting to note that this technique is not something that appears in any Italian recipes for insalata di mare I’m aware of. If you’ve been to Bari and tasted their wonderful crudo di mare, you know that raw or near raw squid can be delicious, but for an insalata di mare Italians prefer the firmer but tender texture of well cooked mollusks. As do I. Flash cooked squid can be quite delicious, but I find its slightly “squishy” texture strikes a off-key note here.

Dressing

The amount of lemon juice and seasonings that go into the dressing for your insalata di mare is largely a matter of taste. I don’t like my dressing to be too acid, so I only use a half lemon for the dressing, with an extra squeeze just before serving to brighten the dish.

I prefer to be discrete with the garlic, too. Just one tiny clove, very finely minced. (Here’s one case where a garlic press does the job well.) Other recipes use more or omit the garlic entirely. I also like just the bit of heat that comes from a pinch of red pepper flakes, but most recipes omit it. Whatever you do, be generous with the salt. And use best quality olive oil—it’ll make or break this salad as it does for any salad—and be generous with it, too.

My personal touch on this very traditional recipe: I like to drizzle more olive oil and squeeze lemon juice over the seafood just before serving. The lemon adds a bit of brightness to the dish and the olive oil adds richness and lovely velvety texture. I leave most of the marinade behind in the mixing bowl.

Leftovers and making ahead

You can and indeed should make your insalata di mare at least a bit head of time. One or better two hours to marinate the seafood makes a big difference. You can even do this a day or even two ahead, but in that case, I’d hold back on the garlic and hot pepper, if you’re using them, until a couple of hours before serving. (They’d get too strong otherwise.)

If you’re making the salad more than an hour or two ahead of time, place it in the fridge. You should remove it about 30 minutes before serving so it comes back to room temperature.

By the way, there’s no need to throw out the delicious juices that you’ll get from steaming the clams and mussels. They’re wonderful on their own, still hot, for dipping bread. They also make a fine seafood risotto. And they add a wonderfully brine-y scent to tomato sauce for dressing pasta.

Print Recipe

Insalata di mare (Italian Seafood Salad)

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time1 day d 6 hours hrs

Total Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Course: Antipasto

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: seafood

Ingredients

To cook the shrimp and calamari:

• 250 g (1/2 lb) medium shrimp, tails removed, peeled and deveined if needed
• 250 g (1/2 lb) small to medium sized calamari,, cleaned
• 1 small onion peeled and cut in half
• 1 stalk of celery
• 1-2 cloves of garlic peeled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 sprigs of parsley
• salt

For cooking the mussels and clams:

• 500 g (1 lb) mussels
• 12 clams preferably a small variety like littlenecks
• 1-2 cloves of garlic slightly crushed and peeled
• A stems of a few sprigs of fresh parsley
• Peels of one lemon
• White wine

To prepare the dressing:

• 1/d lemon, the juice of
• 150 ml (1/2 cup) olive oil
• 1 small clove of garlic very finely minced (optional)
• salt
• The leaves of a few sprigs of fresh parsley finely minced
• A small pinch of red pepper flakes optional

Instructions

Prep and cook the shrimp and calamari

• Cut the body of the calamari into rings and, if they are large, cut the tentacles into bite sized pieces. Set aside until needed.
• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Salt very generously and add the onion, celery, garlic, parsley and bay leaf. Let simmer for a good 15-20 minutes so the aromatics infuse. Remove the aromatics.
• Add the shrimp and cook very briefly, only until they turn pink, usually just a minute or two. Remove immediately with a skimmer and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Drain and pat dry.
• Now add the calamari to the same pot and simmer until tender, usually about 5-10 minutes depending on their size. Once cooked, remove the calamari with a skimmer, run under cold water, drain and pat dry.

Prep and cook the clams and mussels

• Soak both the clams and mussels in well salted water for at least an hour. Drain when ready to cook.
• In a saucepan large enough to hold all the clams and mussels comfortably, sauté the garlic and parsley stems gently in a drizzle of olive oil, just until you can smell the garlic (which should not brown at all).
• Add the clams first and then the mussels, along with a splash of white wine.
• Cover and let the clams and mussels steam let them steam just until they open. Shake the saucepan from time to time to help things along and uncover to check on them every couple of minutes. As the bivalves open, remove them to a bowl to cool off.
• When the clams and mussels have cooled enough to handle, gingerly remove the meat from their shells, using paring knife if need be to cut the ligaments that attach the meat to its shell. Rinse off any grit that may cling to the meat and, for the mussels, trim off any threads that might still be clinging to them.
• Place the clams and mussel meat in a small bowl and, if you're not planning on using them right away, moisten them with a spoonful or two of their cooking juices.
• When you're ready to use the clams and mussels, drain them and gently pat them dry with a paper towel.

Preparing the dressing

• Whisk the lemon juice and olive oil together until emulsified. If you like, add a spoonful or two of the clam and mussel cooking juices and whisk again. Season with a pinch of salt, the minced parsley and, if using, the minced garlic and/or red pepper flakes. Whisk again to mix well.

Putting it all together

• Place all the cooked seafood in a mixing bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss until all the seafood is nicely coated. Let marinate for at least an hour before serving. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
• To serve, arrange the marinated seafood on a platter or in a serving bowl, then drizzle the seafood with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and sprinkle with minced parsley for color.

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